Your purchase will support Steepster.
“A strong CTC black tea. This tea often was unpleasant to drink because it had the tendency to go very strong extremely quickly, but this was a great tea for milk tea. I’m little sad that Harney...” Read full tasting note
“My tea budget was depleted recently so I’ve been happily focused on my stock of morning rotation black teas in my cabinet. But, as great as they are, it wasn’t long before I started getting the...” Read full tasting note
This tea is made near Keemun, so it shares many of the similar flavors. However, they handle the leaves a bit differently. They make sure that the oxidation is slow & controlled so that the lovely flavors develop over the hours. And when the tea is rolled, some of the tea leaves are broken and cannot be sold as the more expensive Songluo curls. So their problem is your opportunity. It has many of the great flavors of its full-leaved tea, but with more body and for less money.
Since 1983 Harney & Sons has been the source for fine teas. We travel the globe to find the best teas and accept only the exceptional. We put our years of experience to work to bring you the best Single-Estate teas, and blends beyond compare.
A strong CTC black tea. This tea often was unpleasant to drink because it had the tendency to go very strong extremely quickly, but this was a great tea for milk tea. I’m little sad that Harney & Sons doesn’t sell this anymore, though I completely understand why. The full version tastes way, way better and I would recommend that one over this.
sold for $8.5/4oz
edit: The website has it again! Now the 4oz tin is sold for $14
My tea budget was depleted recently so I’ve been happily focused on my stock of morning rotation black teas in my cabinet. But, as great as they are, it wasn’t long before I started getting the itch to venture out into something new. Again Harney & Sons came to the rescue with a great sale on already very reasonably priced teas.
I found this Songluo Broken tea in their Chinese Teas section. Apparently, this variety with broken leaves comes at a much lower price than the one with non-broken leaves. Since I care more about flavor than appearance, this was fine with me.
When I opened the Harney & Sons bag, an aroma of keemun wafted forth. There also was a sweet attribute to the smell which was quite pronounced. The dark brown leaves were small and appeared…uh…BROKEN. They reminded me of finely ground mulch.
As the folks at Harney & Sons recommend, I brewed the leaves at 212 degrees for five minutes. The color was an orange-brown. The brewed odor was subtle with sweet keemun-like undertones.
My first sip had an astringent attribute but this completely disintegrated with the next sip. The flavor was mild with keemun and sweet characteristics. Harney’s web page likens the sweet attribute to agave. To me, it was more like Sweet’N Low, which I have become very familiar with since I am no longer allowed to drink the South’s traditional sweet tea. I really don’t have any complaints about that flavor (or agave’s for that matter).
The pleasant and moderate flavors were also quite smooth. I had no trouble swallowing my first cup rapidly. The taste levels were certainly sufficient to please my palate. The aftertaste was light and gentle.
This tea is a tremendous bargain with first-rate flavors. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys Chinese teas but has a limited tea allowance (like yours truly). I also believe that people with hefty tea budgets will not be disappointed either.
Flavors: Sweet, Tea
